What a Difference Three Years Can Make
by RLD Flame-point Callie-co
Summary: Set 3 years after Blue Noon. Rex and Dess leave Bixby and rejoin the rest of their old crew just as they discover a new midnighter who can travel between midnight and normal time. Canon-compliant, OCs included.
1. Graduation and a Funeral

**This is my sequel to the Midnighters trilogy, set three years post-Blue Noon. I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS. Seriously, do I look like Scott Westerfeld? Oh, wait, you can't see me. Well, I'm not him, sadly. All characters you don't recognize from the books are mine. I hope this doesn't resemble anybody else's stories on , but if it does, I promise it's an accident. **

**SUMMARY: Rex's dad dies, and he leaves Bixby and tries to reconnect with Melissa, Dess meets two new midnighter guys (one with a really cool power) both of whom are attracted to her, and there's some stuff about how Jess and Jonathan's relationship is affected by the Jess-trapped-in-the-blue-time thing, but I don't want to give too much away. Please R&R. I don't really like writing in 1****st**** person, so I'm just going to focus on one character in each chapter; all thoughts (in italics) are that person's. **

**Rex**

Rex Greene picked up the phone, wishing for the thousandth time that he had Caller ID so he could screen the calls he didn't really want to answer. _And why would I want to answer __any__ calls? How much more bad news do I need, anyway? _"Yeah, hello?"

"Rex?" asked the familiar voice on the other end.

_Oh, of course, it's Dr. Thompkins. I could learn to hate hearing from him. _Ever since Rex's dad's lungs had really started to crap out, Dr. Thompkins had called every other night to give Rex updates. Wearily, Rex tried to force some interest into his tone. "How is he?"

Dr. Thompkins cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well, Rex, I'm afraid I have some difficult news for you. Your father is dead. He passed away half an hour ago. Rex, are you still there?"

Rex turned the question over in his mind. _Am I really here? If I'm here, shouldn't I feel sad, or at least feel __something__? What are you supposed to feel when the man who used to beat you up and shove you into bathtubs full of tarantulas dies? _"Yeah, I'm here. I'll have to pick up his stuff, right?"

When he replayed his memories later, Rex realized he couldn't remember exactly what things of his dad's he retrieved from the hospital. In fact, he couldn't remember much about the whole week. Everything: the doctors' explanations of precisely what had gone irreparably wrong with Mr. Greene's respiratory system, the condolences from various people, and the funeral preparations, were all mixed into one indistinct blur through which Rex moved like a zombie.

He finally reanimated about halfway through his father's funeral. The catalyst for this reanimation wasn't any part of the service; Rex had never cared much for church-type things. The line of people who said they were sorry for his loss didn't make an impression either.

Finally, when the mourners had left, and Rex was left alone by his father's grave, Dess came up beside him and squeezed his hand. "Hey, Rex. So I guess you're in kind of a weird situation now, huh?"

Rex shook his head to snap himself out of his reverie and focused on Dess's face. "What do you mean?" he asked. The words felt strange coming out of his mouth, as if his voice was rusty from disuse. _Haven't I said anything all week?_

Dess shrugged and looked down at the fresh grave at her feet. "I mean, you stayed in Bixby all these years to take care of your dad. Now that he's gone, there isn't much reason for you to be here anymore. You can leave right now, if you want. You can go see Melissa."

"Not right now, I can't. I can't leave town for another two weeks." Dess looked up at him, obviously confused. Rex grinned. "You're graduating from high school, remember? I can't miss that."

"Oh! You're staying for that?"

"Sure I am. Unless you don't want me there."

"No, of course I do. I just figured you'd want to leave Bixby the moment there was nothing left for you here."

Rex shook his head, causing raindrops to fly out of his floppy black hair. "I wouldn't say there's nothing left for me here. You're still here." He and Dess turned and walked out of the cemetery, her hand still in his.

The day after Dess's graduation, Rex was pulled out of his book by a knock on the door. He opened it to see Dess standing there. "Do you have some time to talk?" she asked, then pushed through the door without waiting for his reply.

"Come on in," Rex muttered, closing the door behind her. "Can I get you a snack or anything?"

"No, I already had lunch. I came to talk about what you're going to do now."

"My immediate plans included making a sandwich."

Dess waved a hand impatiently. "I don't mean what you're doing for lunch, Rex. I mean, what are you going to do with yourself? When Melissa, Jonathan and Jessica left, you stayed here to take care of your dad and Madeleine; fine, everyone understands that. Well, your dad and Maddy are gone now. You can't be planning to stay in this crappy dump for the rest of your life."

Rex nodded. "I know. I don't plan to. I do want to find out how the rest of the midnighters are doing, and how many new midnighters they've found since the blue time spread, but…"

"But what?"

"But, I haven't seen any of them for three years now, and ever since my dad went into the hospital, what, four months ago, I haven't really talked to any of them on the phone, either." _Not that I really wanted to talk to Flyboy, and calling Jessica is impossible, since she only exists for the one hour that my phone doesn't work, but not talking to Melissa… what does that mean? Probably something bad. _

Dess shuffled her feet. "Oh. I didn't know… I mean, I thought you and Melissa still called each other all the time. I mean, you still talked to me all the time."

"Well, yeah, you know… you were right here, in the same zip code and everything. It's easier to talk to you." _And I __like__ talking to you. _"But yeah, I want to go find the rest of the old gang. What about you? What do you want to do?"

"Um, I guess I want to check up on them, too. They've probably found a bunch more polymaths out there, and I'd hate to think of them trying to explain the blue time in mathematical terms without me. So, you give Melissa a ring and find out where they are, and we can go meet them."

"Sure thing. After I get that sandwich. You sure you don't want one?"

Dess shrugged. "All right. Whatever you're having is fine."

Rex hurried into the kitchen; standing there with Dess was suddenly uncomfortable. After she had said 'we can go meet them', Rex felt strangely thrilled that she would be coming with him. _Well, Dess __is__ the only other midnighter I've hung out with in three years; and after having all this time with just the two of us, it makes sense that we've gotten closer, right? It's perfectly natural to be happy that she and I are sticking together; feeling this way doesn't mean anything special… right?_

**Please review! **


	2. Enter Mick

**Jessica**

"Hey, Jess. How you doing tonight?"

Jessica sighed. For her, no time had passed since she had last spoken to Jonathan, so it was disconcerting when he greeted her as if he hadn't seen her all day. Which he hadn't. Nobody saw her in the daytime anymore.

"I'm fine, Jonathan. Nothing's happened to me that you don't know about, since I've been nonexistent for the last twenty-four hours."

Jonathan shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. Anyway, Melissa says she can taste another midnighter in this neighborhood, so we're gonna check it out. You're coming, right?"

"Yes, I'm coming." Jessica climbed out of Jonathan's car. At the end of midnight, she always had to get back in the car. That way, Jonathan knew where she would materialize when midnight fell the next night, and it made travelling easier if he didn't have to fly somewhere else to get her. "Let's go."

Jonathan took Jessica's left hand and they jumped together, the street, and then the oak trees that lined it falling away beneath them. "Does Melissa have any idea what kind of talent this new midnighter might have? I mean, after the time when we first met Alex and he nearly liquefied us, I think we should know what we're getting into before we pound on this person's door."

"No, Melissa doesn't have any info on this guy other than midnighter and guy. But if the first encounter turns nasty, you can always blind him."

Jessica nodded uneasily, and patted the pocket that contained her flashlight, Unanticipated Illuminations. She didn't like resorting to frying someone's retinas, but if the new guy was freaked out by the blue time, and had a powerful offensive talent, a weapon could come in handy.

Jessica and Jonathan descended toward the front lawn of the last house on the street. "Watch out for the sprinkler," Jonathan warned. Looking down, Jessica saw the frozen jet of water spraying out of the sprinkler, which had been arrested mid-rotation by midnight. She twisted away from the droplets suspended in midair, knowing that her touch would release the water and soak her T-shirt. _It would really suck to get caught by a sprinkler during the one hour that it can't actually spray. _

Once her feet were on the ground, Jessica gave Jonathan a quick hug. "Thanks for coming to get me. Being able to fly all the time is about the only good part of this whole temporal dependence thing." Pressed against Jonathan's body, it was hard to ignore the fact that he looked different these days. Older. Of course he looked older; for him, three years had passed, and he had just turned eighteen last month. For Jessica, the last three years had been compressed into 1,095 hours, as opposed to the 9,125 hours that had passed for her friends, so she was stuck at fifteen, while they were eighteen or nineteen. Jessica tried not to think about this discrepancy, and having it forcibly brought to 

her attention, like when she stood close to Jonathan and noticed that he was several inches taller than her now, never failed to darken her mood.

"Sheesh, Jessica, brood much?" Melissa's impatient voice pulled Jessica back to the lawn. "I need to concentrate on getting a read of this guy, and your angsting is drowning him out."

"OK, sorry. I'll try not to think so loudly." _As if my brain has a volume control._

"Well, try to make one," Melissa snapped.

As the mindcaster turned back to the large house at the end of the hedge-lined driveway, Alex, the newest addition to the group, looked between her and Jessica in evident confusion. He had only been with them for a week, and he wasn't yet used to Melissa answering peoples' unspoken thoughts. In response to Alex's confounded expression, Jonathan grimaced and shook his head. Alex nodded and mimed zipping his lips.

"OK, the guy's in there." Melissa reported briskly. "Let's go knock." She set off up the driveway at an unusually quick clip.

"What's up with her?" Jessica asked.

"Who knows? She's been a little uptight all afternoon, ever since she got this phone call."

"Who called her?"

"How should I know? I'm an acrobat, not a mindcaster. Whoever it was, I'm guessing they gave her some bad news."

Alex stood listening with evident curiosity, until Melissa's voice hit their ears like the crack of a whip. "Are you three coming, or are you going to stand out on the lawn all midnight?"

Alex jumped like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar and trotted up the driveway, then up the sidewalk that led around the front of the house to the door. Jonathan rolled his eyes, grabbed Jessica's hand, and leaped to the front door.

Melissa rapped hard on the door, but no one answered. "Hey!" she yelled. "You in there, open up!" When the inhabitant still didn't answer the door, Melissa sighed and turned to Alex. "OK, Al, you know what to do," she said.

Alex gulped. In addition to being mindcasted, breaking and entering was another midnighter activity he wasn't accustomed to. However, he wasn't about to argue with Melissa, especially not when she was already in a snit. Alex pressed his fingertips to the doorknob and lock, and they melted and dripped down the door in a blue-tinged stream. "Now try it," he said, wiping nervous sweat off his upper lip.

Melissa pushed on the door, and it swung open easily. She tramped into the house like she owned the place, but Alex stayed outside, watching her apprehensively. Jessica patted his shoulder sympathetically; she remembered all too well what it felt like to be nervous about the law-breaking aspects of a career as a midnighter. Jonathan, on the other hand, didn't have much patience for Alex's nerves, or for the way he was too scared to stand up to Melissa. "Grow a backbone, man," Jonathan told him. He grabbed Jessica's hand and pulled her away from Alex, into the house.

The inside of the house was just like the outside: somewhat large, and hinting that the owners had plenty of money, but not a gaudy display of wealth. The midnighters' shoes made loud _clack-clack _noises on the entrance hall's tile floor. "Hello?" Jessica called. "Look, I know you're probably confused, maybe scared, but we just want to talk to you."

"This way," Melissa nodded in the direction of the kitchen. She, Jessica and Jonathan proceeded into the kitchen, where they found a guy who looked about Melissa's age brandishing a steak knife at them.

"Who are you people?" he demanded, his voice shaking. The hand holding the knife was shaking, too, but there was no guarantee that he wouldn't decide to use it, so Melissa, Jonathan and Jess all stopped a good eight feet from him.

"OK, calm down," Melissa said, injecting a note of soothing calm into her voice. "We're midnighters, like you."

"Midnighters? What the freaking hell is a midnighter?! What's happening here?! Is this some kind of out-of-body experience or something?"

"You look to me like you're still in your body," Jonathan said sarcastically. "So far."

"So far?! What does that mean? Am I dying or something?" The guy's voice cracked and went up an octave or two as he spoke.

Jessica elbowed Jonathan in the ribs. "You're not helping," she muttered.

Melissa rolled her eyes at them and edged closer to the perturbed guy. "You aren't dying," she assured him. "You aren't hallucinating either. Just put that knife down, and we'll explain everything."

The guy glared suspiciously for another moment, then slowly put the knife on the counter and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Fine, explain. And make it good."

"All right, let's start with introductions. Those guys are Jonathan and Jessica. I'm Melissa." She held out a gloved hand, but the other guy didn't offer to shake hands with her.

"I'm Mick," he said. "It's kind of an alteration of Michael."

"Nice to meet you, Mick. Now, to answer your 'what's happening here' question…"

For the next forty-five minutes, Melissa, with a little help from Jess and Jonathan, explained to Mick about how the blue time was a whole hour for them, but only a moment for daylighters. When they explained how the blue time was made by darklings, Mick's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "There're monsters that live in this place?!" He swept his gaze around the kitchen, as if expecting something to pounce at him from the shadows.

_Poor guy, _Jessica thought. _At least he's not finding out about darklings and slithers the way I did, by nearly being __eaten__. Who knows, maybe he'll never have to worry about darklings, since they seem to be lying low after last Halloween. _

As if he had read Jessica's mind, Jonathan explained to Mick how the darklings were keeping a low profile these days. "Plus, they don't usually like to wander around suburban areas like yours, so you probably have nothing to worry about."

"That's really great to know, man. Thanks a lot." Mick's voice held a badly suppressed note of derision. "So this is really happening, huh?"

_What a stupid question. Even __I__ didn't take that long to catch on. _"Yes, Mick, it's really happening," Jessica assured him.

Mick looked annoyed at a fifteen-year-old taking that tone with him. "Hey, what's the kid doing here? You guys kidnap her or something? Do your parents even know where you are, little girl?"

_Little girl! Who does this creep think he is? _"No, as a matter of fact, my parents don't know where I am, and no, I haven't been kidnapped and I can't go home, so why don't you shut up?"

Mick opened his mouth to retort, but Jonathan stepped in front of Jessica. "The lady said shut up, mister."

"Oh, crap," Melissa interjected. "We've stood here talking too long; the blue time's almost over!"

"Crap," Jonathan muttered. "How long do we have?"

"Not long enough for you to fly her back to your car. It looks like you'll have to spend the day in Mick's kitchen, Jess."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you talking about? Why is she stuck in my kitchen? And did you just say this dude can fly?!" Mick asked, staring at Jonathan in disbelief.

"Yes, Jonathan can fly," Jessica said. "And if you wait another ten seconds, you'll be able to see why I'm stuck in your kitchen. But don't worry; you won't even know I'm here."

No sooner had Jessica finished her sentence than the dark moon set and normal color swept across the neighborhood. As she faded into nonexistence, Jessica thought _seeing me disappear ought to make a believer out of Mick… or give him a nervous breakdown. Whichever comes first._


	3. Reunion

**Melissa **

"Okay, I'm here. Are you going to tell me more about what happened last night?"

Melissa kept her nose in her menu as she answered Mick. "Sure, I'll tell you more. Ask anything you want. And here," she put down the menu and pushed it across the table, "you might as well get some food while you're here. The beef fajitas are pretty good."

Mick scowled disgustedly at the offered menu. "Screw the beef fajitas, Melissa. I only agreed to come here because you said you'd tell me how I ended up with an extra hour in my day. And don't give me any more 'because you were born at midnight' bullshit. I've been awake at midnight plenty of times before and never seen a damn thing out of the ordinary. Then that little redhead disappearing right when things went back to normal; I've been looking all over and can't find a trace of her anywhere else…"

_Geez, this guy talks a lot. I better cut him off before he gets to full-on rant mode. _She held up a hand, and Mick stopped talking, but kept his resentful glare in place. As Melissa explained about how the blue time started only in Bixby but was spread all over the world by the rip, Mick's glare was gradually replaced by awe. "…and that's how Jessica ended up trapped in that one hour. Rex called it temporal dependence."

For a moment, Mick just sat there with his mouth hanging open. Melissa pushed her water at him. "Here, have a drink, and don't even think about going into shock on me."

Mick obediently sipped some lemon-laced water, then asked, "and who the hell is this Rex, again?"

"He's a seer. Back when we lived in Bixby, he was pretty much our leader."

"Oh. Well, you seem to be the leader now. Did seer-dude like, die, or something?"

Melissa's jaw clenched. She was quickly making up her mind that Mick was an insensitive jerk, plus, she was less than happy with Rex at the moment and didn't really want to talk about him – not to a jerk like Mick, anyway. "No, he isn't dead. He stayed in Bixby to take care of his dad." _Just leave it at 'his dad', I do __not__ feel like explaining about Madeleine. _"His dad died a week ago, so now he's leaving Bixby and joining us."

"You don't seem too thrilled with that. Do you not like him?"

_Crap, an __observant__ insensitive jerk. _"I like him just fine. Anyway, once he gets here, I'm hoping he'll be able to help me figure out what your power is."

Mick blinked. "I have a superpower?"

"Yes, all midnighters do."

"Like that dude I met last night, Jonathan or whatever, that you said can fly? And the vanishing redhead that sets stuff on fire? And you… what exactly do you do, again?"

"I'm a mindcaster. Basically, I can read people's minds. That's how I found your house last night."

"Huh. That sounds pretty cool. Hey, you think I'll be able to fly or read minds?"

The waitress who had appeared with Melissa's beef fajita platter raised her eyebrows at Mick. Melissa smirked, enjoying his discomfort, before rescuing him by saying, "you'll have to excuse my friend; he's a huge Star Wars fan. I used to try to convince him that the Force doesn't really exist, but I gave up years ago."

The waitress nodded understandingly. As she set the plate on the table, she muttered, "You can do better than him, honey. You don't wanna stick with a guy who's gonna end up naming his kids Darth and Chewbacca."

Melissa laughed and Mick's glare returned.

An hour later, Melissa walked out of the diner with a definite feeling of relief. Mick was one of the most obnoxious midnighters she'd ever met. First, he ran his mouth way too much, but that was excusable. _After all, most of the new midnighters I've met have had lots of questions. The only problem with Mick is, he doesn't just stick to technical questions about midnight and darklings; he thinks he gets to ask personal questions, too. Then after he's poked his nose into the details of midnighter life in Bixby, he decides he's hungry after all and takes one of my fajitas! _She shook her head, amazed that any one person could be so pushy. _I just hope he doesn't end up staying with us, like Alex did. He probably won't. He really has no reason to want to spend any more time with us. _

That night, Melissa told Jonathan to head on over to Mick's house so he could be there when Jessica materialized. Alex didn't need to be sent away; he sensed Melissa's tenseness and made himself scarce.

As soon as she was sure the others weren't around, Melissa headed outside to wait for Rex and Dess. She didn't have long to wait before they were there, getting out of some generic rental car. Melissa got off the butt-numbing wooden bench she had parked herself on and walked toward them, calling, "hey guys. Long time, no see."

They both turned in the direction of her voice. Rex smiled, but Melissa could taste a bit of nervousness. _He's probably embarrassed about the way he acted when his dad got sick, crawling into a hole and refusing to talk to anyone… as well he should be. _Dess, on the other hand, didn't look nervous at all. She was taking in the surroundings, most likely calculating their exact latitude and longitude. _And there's Miss Math. I'd almost forgotten what all those calculations buzzing around her brain taste like. At least she doesn't still taste bitter about that one time I touched her. Good, that'll make being around her a __lot__ easier._

Melissa kept these thoughts off her face as she reached her old friends. "Was your trip all right?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, it was fine," Dess answered. She checked to be sure Melissa's gloves were on, and then held out her hand. They shook hands quickly, then Dess pulled back and asked if this was where Melissa and Jonathan were staying. "I guess Jessica doesn't really need a hotel room, does she? I mean, she can't even call for room service, huh?" Dess looked a little hesitant to broach the Jessica subject, as if she was asking how someone was coping with a deadly disease.

"No, Jessica doesn't stay in the hotel. She gets in Jonathan's car right before midnight ends; that way if we drive to another town during the way, she won't be left behind."

Dess nodded. "That makes sense. So did you get rooms for me and Rex, or are we sharing with you and Jonathan?" Dess grinned evilly at the thought of Rex and Jonathan stuck sharing a room.

Melissa assured Dess that she had gotten other rooms for them, so they weren't stuck with roommates. As she led them to their rooms, she also explained about Alex and Mick. "We don't have a clue yet what Mick can do. I was hoping maybe you could help with that, Rex."

"All right. We can do that during midnight. For now, I want to get some coffee, preferably before all the baristas in town freeze. How about you two?"

Melissa agreed, but Dess said she'd rather take her stuff to her room. "You go enjoy yourselves," she said, grinning again.

As Melissa helped Rex and Dess unload their suitcases, Alex showed up. "Hey, when do you want to head over to Mick's place? I think we should try to get there while we can still use cars…" he stopped as Rex and Dess turned to look at him. "I mean… uh… who, um, who are you?"

Melissa sighed. "Rex, Dess, this is Alex, the lock-melter I was telling you about. Alex, meet Rex and Dess. He's a seer, and she's a polymath."

Dess smiled at Alex. "Hi, nice to meet you," she said.

Alex shook her hand and mumbled something that sounded like 'nice to meet you too'. He then volunteered to help Dess carry the luggage into the hotel, leaving Rex and Melissa free to head to Starbucks.

"What was up with that Alex guy?" Rex asked. "He looked like he was expecting to get poked with a cattle prod. Did Dess and I scare him? Or have you been scaring him?"

"Me, scare someone? Innocent little me? No, Alex always acts like that. He's even afraid to break into other people's houses; can you imagine that?" _Can you imagine someone ignoring their best friend for about two months, then showing up and chit-chatting like nothing happened?_

"No, I can't imagine that. Especially not from a lock-melter. You'd think he'd be a natural at breaking into houses."

Melissa's nails dug into her plastic coffee cup. "Come on, it's a bit of a drive to Mick's house. I want to get there before midnight; I had my fill of crashing through windshields three years ago."

Melissa tossed her empty cup in the trash can and walked to the car. Rex trailed behind her, looking confused at her snippiness. _He's got some nerve, being confused! All that time of not answering me when I tried to call him and now he doesn't even say 'I missed you'! Well, that's fine, he can just focus on finding out what power Mick has… and I'm not about to tell him how much __I__ missed __him__._

**A/N: I apologize for the slowness of this chapter, and promise more action in the next one.**


	4. Teleporter

**A/N: I promised more action in this chapter, but I couldn't find a good way to put in a darkling fight, since they're in the middle of a suburb, so I hope a fistfight and finding out what Mick's power is will be enough. **

**Mick**

Mick felt annoyance stab through him at the sound of someone knocking on his door. _Why bother knocking? One of my creepy new 'friends' fried the lock; anyone can just barge right in. I'm glad this is a relatively crime-free neighborhood. _The knock sounded again, harder this time. "It's open!" Mick hollered.

He switched off the TV and got off the couch, thinking that if it was a burglar, he probably shouldn't just sit there like a lump. _But if it was a burglar, I doubt they would knock. _He found the flying guy in his entrance hall. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to get Jessica."

"Jessica is the redhead who disappeared in my kitchen last night, right? So are you here to fly her somewhere?"

Flying-guy scowled. He seemed oddly touchy about the redhead. Mick wondered idly if Flying-guy had done something that had led to her getting trapped in that one hour. "Why is it your job to fly her around, anyway? Are you like, her chauffeur, or her boyfriend? Isn't she a little young for you? I mean, she's what, fifteen?"

Mick didn't even see Flying-guy's fist until it crashed into the side of his head. "Shut up! You have no idea what you're talking about! From now on, you just keep your mouth shut, you meathead!"

While shouting, Flying-guy grabbed the front of Mick's shirt and hauled him closer so he could slam his fist into Mick's nose. More than likely, he would have continued pummeling Mick, except that headlights flashed through the windows, announcing that a car had pulled into the driveway.

Flying-guy let go of Mick's shirt and went to the kitchen, presumably to wash the blood off his knuckles. Mick swiped a hand across his face, feeling the wetness that meant the blood on Flying-guy's hand wasn't from his knuckles bleeding. _Damn, what's his problem? The redhead __must__ be his girlfriend; why else would he be so touchy about her? Don't know why he'd wanna date down that far, but whatever floats his boat. _

Mick opened the door to get a look at the new arrivals. He didn't recognize the car, which looked like standard-issue rental crap. Melissa was getting out, accompanied by a guy in a long black coat. Mick ran a speculative eye over the pair. Melissa looked unhappy; Black-Coat-guy looked like her unhappiness was confusing him. _Wonder what's up with those two? They look like people coming home from a bad date. Huh, maybe they __were__ on a date. Yeah, right. That mindcaster chick is such a tight-ass, I can't imagine anyone getting up the nerve to ask her out. She sure is hot, though. I wonder if she gets less scary when you know her better…_

Melissa's head swiveled toward Mick, who remembered what she told him about how she could read minds. _Oh, crap_. "Hello, Mick," she said, her inflectionless tone giving no clue as to whether she had heard his thoughts about her. "This is Rex. He's going to help you find what your power is."

"Hey, man. What's up?" Mick held out a hand, but Rex didn't offer his, just gave Mick a weary look, as if he had had too many handshakes in the last few weeks. _Oh, right, Mind-Reader-girl did say his dad just died. I guess that makes 'what's up' a pretty stupid thing to say to him. _

"It really does," Melissa said.

"Right," Mick stuffed his hand into his pocket.

"Why is your nose bleeding?" Rex asked.

"That Jonathan guy punched me. You wanna come say hi to him? He's in my kitchen, waiting for that Jessica chick to come back. Will she really appear at midnight in my kitchen?"

Neither Rex nor Melissa bothered to answer him; they just brushed past him into his house. _Apparently my new friends aren't big on small talk._ Mick hurried after them; if the redhead did reappear at midnight, he didn't want to miss it.

Sure enough, as the eerie blue light swept down the street, Jessica folded out of the air, right where she had vanished the night before. "That is so cool!" Mick exclaimed.

Jessica gave him a rather sour look. "Yes, I get thrills down my spine every time I do it," she said dryly. "Hey, Jonathan, Melissa, and… whoa. Rex Greene, is that you?"

He gave her a forced-looking smile. "Yeah, it's me. Temporal dependence aside, how have you been, Jessica?"

"Better than you, I guess. Have you been sick or something? No offense, but you look like crap."

He shrugged. "Had the flu about a month ago. I'm fine now. Let's get down to business. Mick, do you have any idea what your power could be? Have you noticed anything different about yourself since you first experienced midnight?"

"Yeah, until you midnighters came here, nobody ever beat me up." He shot a baleful glance at Jonathan, who shrugged unrepentantly.

"You beat him up?!" Jessica raised her eyebrows at Jonathan.

"Yes, I beat Mick up. So, Jess, wanna fly to the top of the water tower?" he asked quickly.

"Sure, why not?" Jessica opened the sliding door to the backyard, and she and Jonathan stepped outside; he took her hand, and together they jumped and went soaring into the sky.

Mick stared in amazement. "Wow, that dude really can fly," he murmured.

"Yes, Jonathan can fly," Rex said impatiently. "Can we please focus on you now?"

"OK, well, I can only think of one weird thing that's happened since this blue time spread. It took me a while to remember it, 'cause until I met other midnighters, I had only seen midnight once and thought it was a dream, but here it is: I was out walking in that nature park place way out at the edge of town, and I kind of forgot about how late it was getting and conked out on the bench. When I woke up, it was midnight, and I saw this weird-ass animal, like a panther, but on steroids, you know? I mean, it was way too big. Anyway, it scared the shit out of me, figuratively speaking, and I wished I was back home. Next thing I knew, I was back home, lying on my bed, and all the creepy blue light was gone. I thought I had just been a crazy dream, so I rolled over and went back to sleep."

Rex absorbed this, frowning in concentration. _I guess I can see why he used to be the leader; he has a knack for looking like he knows what's going on, although I bet he really has no idea what to make of my little anecdote. I sure as hell don't know what to make of it, and I'm the lucky sucker who lived through it. _

However, Rex knew more than Mick expected. "Sounds like a teleporter to me," he said.

"Teleporter?! That sounds like a porta-potty with a telephone in it!"

Melissa laughed at Mick's outraged expression. "No, no, being a teleporter is a good thing. Isn't it, Rex?"

"Yeah, it's a really cool talent. All I know about teleporting is that you can bend the space/time continuum. It lets you travel to any place on the globe with zero time elapsing. I don't know exactly how the continuum-bending works; you'd have to talk to Dess about that."

"Who's Dess?"

"Dess is someone who understands the space/time continuum much better than I do; she's very good with numbers. How'd you like to meet her?"

"Sounds good. Can I teleport to wherever she is?"

"Yeah, she and our lock-melting friend Alex are at the inappropriately named Riverview hotel." Rex raised his eyebrows, so Melissa explained, "there are so many trees in this town, you have to go outside city limits to see the river."

"Okay, I know where Riverview is. But just in case this teleporting ends up sending me to Japan or someplace, I'm taking you two with me." Giving them no chance to protest, Mick grabbed Rex and Melissa's arms and focused on the hotel. Instantaneously, Mick's kitchen disappeared and was replaced by the hotel lobby.

"Whoa, this is freaking cool. Now, which room is this Dess in?" Mick bounced excitedly to the reception desk and dinged the bell. "Hey, miss, you know where I can find a girl called Dess?" he asked the frozen receptionist.

"Quit playing with the stiff, you big goof," Melissa admonished. "We need to get out of the lobby before midnight ends, or she'll think we appeared out of thin air. Also, the elevators don't work in the blue time, so we're taking the stairs."

"Aww, man, the stairs." Mick followed Rex and Melissa up the long staircase, grumbling every step of the way.


	5. Easy to Talk To

**Dess**

_Maybe letting Rex and Melissa go and leave me alone with Alex was a mistake. _Dess had appreciated Alex's help with her and Rex's stuff, but his company was making her a little uncomfortable. Alex kept staring at her like she was from a whole other species, and when he spoke, he stumbled over his words and said 'um' and 'uh' way too much. _I remember he stuttered a bit when he talked to Melissa, too. Does he have a speech impediment, or is he afraid of females?_

Dess unfolded the suitcase stand and reached for her bag, but Alex dove for it at the same time and their heads banged together. "Oh, no, I'm so s-sorry. H-here, let me, um, let me get that for you." Alex picked up her suitcase and set it on the stand while Dess rubbed her forehead.

"Next time tell me before you lunge at the thing I'm reaching for, okay?" Alex nodded, clearly embarrassed by the rebuff. Dess decided it would be best to change the topic; casting her mind around for a new subject, she recalled Alex telling Melissa that they had to get to Mick's house. "Who's Mick?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, Mick's this guy we found last night, I mean, he's a, um, midnighter, like you. Like us, that is. Melissa doesn't know what he can do yet. I, uh, think that must be making her angry." Alex winced, as if the thought of Melissa's anger frightened him.

_Then again, I'm starting to think that being called upon to make conversation frightens him._ "I bet it didn't take Melissa long to figure out what you do. Which is what, again?"

"I'm a lock-melter; and it wasn't at all hard to see what I can do, since I can melt more than just locks."

"I've never met a lock-melter before. Will you show me?"

Alex nodded nervously and led her to the bathroom. "I hope you're not too crazy about this toilet paper dispenser," he muttered. He put a finger on the metal dispenser, and it melted into a puddle of shiny goop.

"Wow. It's too bad we didn't have you back in our Bixby days; you would have made things a lot easier."

Alex frowned. "Did you, uh, break and enter, you know, um, a lot?"

Dess laughed. "We didn't make a hobby of it, but we all had our juvenile delinquent moments. I'd say we turned out all right, though."

"You look all right to me," Alex said softly, and then looked down at his shoes. "Um, how long is it 'til midnight?"

Dess pulled Geostationary out of the front pocket of her jeans and checked the time; the clock read 11:48. "It's exactly 720 seconds to midnight."

Alex blinked. "How'd you know that?"

"I'm a polymath. My brain can do just about anything with numbers. Really helped me out in algebra, trig, calculus, all those classes."

"Wow. I wish I had a brain like that. It would be really helpful at work – I'm an architect."

"Really? That's a cool thing to do… but if you have a job, why aren't you in an office somewhere?"

Alex looked embarrassed. "Well, it's really an internship. I'm actually still in college; just a sophomore. But I know the CEO would love to hire me full-time once I get out of school."

Alex grinned proudly, and Dess noticed that while he talked about his job, he lost his cringing, self-effacing air, and became much more confident. _He didn't even say 'uh' once! People should ask him about his job more often._

Dess was about to ask for more details about architecture – _anything to delay the return of the stutterer _– when the arrival of midnight cut her off. Alex jumped, like he still wasn't used to the world freezing around him. "Oh, man, uh, I had no idea it was getting so late. We'd better haul our butts over to Mick's house, or Melissa will, um, kick them for us."

Dess rolled her eyes. "Chill out. Melissa doesn't need us. She has Rex to help her figure out Mick's mystery power. Besides, she and Rex haven't seen each other in three years; they need time to catch up without us butting in."

Alex's blue eyes widened. "Oh, are they, um, dating or something? Because when Melissa told me that there were two other midnighters she and Jonathan and Jessica hung out with, she never talked like she had dated either of them. I mean, obviously not you… you're both girls…" Alex's face darkened, and Dess could tell that if midnight hadn't leeched all the color from the world, his face would be as red as Jessica's hair.

Dess laughed. "No, Melissa and I were just friends. She's not my type. But yeah, she and Rex were best friends; never went anywhere without each other. I always knew they'd end up together… I actually used to be jealous, because I was always the odd one out… even after Jonathan came along, he just flew off by himself… until Jessica moved to Bixby, and he hooked up with her…" Dess bit off the rest of her sentence, embarrassed.

_Dammit, why did I just unload all that on this guy I just met 3,120 seconds ago? _"I'm sorry," she said stiffly. "I don't usually talk that much. I have no idea what got into me." To cover her embarrassment, she shook her shoulder-length black hair out from behind her ears and walked over to the window to stare out at the frozen city five stories beneath her.

Alex walked up behind her and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right. People tell me I'm easy to talk to. No joke, I've been on subways and had total strangers start jabbering at me about their sick cats or what a lazy bum their son-in-law is. And I have a feeling you and I won't be strangers for long, what with the whole 'midnighters have to work together' thing."

_Knock, knock._ Alex's hand dropped off Dess's shoulder as if he'd been electrocuted, and Dess hurried across the room to open the door. Rex and Melissa were on the other side, along with some guy that Dess assumed must be Mick. He had dark hair – spiked rock star style, a T-shirt featuring an alternative metal band Dess had seen in concert once, and jeans with holes in the knees. _Either he's in a band, or he's the slacker type._

The new guy ran his eyes over Dess and evidently liked what he saw; his mouth curved into an appreciative grin. "Hey there. I'm Mick, and I'm guessing you must be Dess."

"Correct. Nice to meet you." Dess and Mick exchanged a brief handshake.

Dess pulled her hand back and addressed Rex. "Do you know what Mick's talent is?"

Rex nodded. "He's a teleporter. Apparently, he bends time and space, but not being a polymath, I have no idea how that works; I think you might have better luck with our new friend."

"Uh-huh. Bends time and space, eh? That's a new one. I'll look into it – tomorrow. For now, I want to get some sleep; driving for six hours straight kinda wears me out. Mick, you can show me your teleportation later, say, 10:30? Alex, it was nice chatting with you. Melissa, good to see you again. Rex, I think some of your socks got tossed in my bag while I was helping you pack, so could you come get them, please?"

"Sure, although I don't know why I would put my socks in your bag…" he cut himself when Dess shot him a look that said plainly that she had more important things on her mind than footwear.

**A/N: My editor, aka my mom, was unavailable to proofread this pre-posting. I tried to proofread myself, but I don't know how great a job I did. Please tell me if you see any errors. I will thank you for that, but I won't correct it since I have no clue how to do that. Thanks for your understanding.**


	6. Infection Confession

**Rex**

For the last few minutes of midnight, Dess pretended she really was worried about misplaced socks, but the instant real time started and there was enough mind noise from the other hotel guests that Melissa wouldn't hear her, she slammed her suitcase shut and folded her arms.

"I noticed when you and Melissa came in that she looks less than ecstatic to have you back. What happened between you two at Starbucks?"

_I was hoping you could tell me. _"I really don't know, Dess. The whole time, it was like she expected something from me, but I didn't know what. Obviously I didn't give it to her, whatever it was." He flopped down on the bed; the all-day road trip had exhausted him even more than Dess, since he was already less than 100 thanks to his run-in with flu germs.

Dess scowled. "Yeah, she was expecting something from you – like an explanation for why you hadn't called her for two whole months."

Rex turned his head to get a better look at the disapproving glint in Dess's hazel eyes. "I didn't call anyone for two months, Dess. While I was sick, I didn't feel up to it. I really didn't feel up to seeing you either, but since you were in the same town, and could get into my house, I had no choice." _You __left__ me no choice, pushy little polymath. Still, her pushiness can be endearing… kind of like the way Beth used to poke her nose into Jessica's business all the time. Annoying, but in a good way. _

Dess sat on the edge of the bed, making no effort not to jostle him. "OK, not answering your phone is understandable, while you're sick, but once you started getting better, it's just rude. It was one thing when you quit keeping up with Angie because who cares about her, but Melissa? What the hell were you thinking?"

Rex sighed. _I really wish I didn't have to go into this. _"Mostly, I was thinking about my dad and when I knew that flu virus was killing him, I felt so guilty that I just wanted to be by myself."

"What did you feel guilty for?"

Rex sat up and stared directly into Dess's eyes as he answered her. "Because I gave him the virus that killed him. There, is that a good enough reason to be depressed, killing your own father?"

Dess's head was shaking back and forth, an almost robotic motion of denial. "No, you didn't. Rex, he got sick before you did. He gave the flu virus to you, remember?"

Rex grabbed her under the chin to stop her head-shaking. "I thought that at first, too. But then it occurred to me, he hadn't been out of the house since before flu season started, so how could he have gotten sick? It was obvious I had been exposed to the virus, not him.

So I did some research to find out why I wasn't getting sick, and I found out that being part darkling changed the way my body reacts to diseases. It takes longer for me to start showing symptoms, and then it takes me longer to get over it, but in the meantime I can still spread germs to other people. 

You see, I did infect him so it's my fault he died. I should have started researching a darkling's immune system as soon as I realized human diseases weren't affecting me the same way anymore, not waited until I'd already spread the germs around. If I had, maybe I wouldn't have infected Dad..."

Dess was still staring at him, but now her eyes had taken on a blank quality, as if she had closed a door behind them to shut out her friend's tortured expression. Finally she blinked hard and shook her head to get her thoughts back in order. "It doesn't matter that much, Rex. You giving him the flu speeded up your dad's death, but it was going to happen sooner or later anyway. After years of smoking and sitting around in front of the TV, he was going downhill way before you made him sick.

And whether your dad was already dying or not, the fact is, he's dead now, and wasting all your time guilt-tripping and pushing people away isn't gonna do him (or you) a damn bit of good. Now, why don't you pull your head out of your, ahem, place that isn't the top of your neck, and do some damage control? You can start with Melissa."

"Ok, you're right, I do need to sort things out with her. I'll talk to her first thing in the morning."

"In the morning? Oh, no, pal, you'll go talk to her right now." Dess grabbed Rex's arm with more force than he would have guessed her rather under-muscled body was capable of. _I wonder if she calculated how much force she would have to use to haul me around like this, _he mused as the irate polymath dragged him across the hall and three doors down to Melissa's room.

Once she got there, Dess shoved Rex up to the door, knocked loudly, then turned and scampered back to her own room so fast no one could have guessed she'd been there. _She moves a lot faster since she traded in the skirts and boots for jeans and tennis shoes. _

Melissa yanked her door open, her usual 'you're thinking too loud' scowl on her face. "Rex, what the hell is going on out here? I tasted a major argument a minute ago, but I managed to tune it out, and now you're banging on my door; what is wrong with you?!"

"I need to talk to you. Can I come in?"

Melissa kept her tone grouchy when she said 'come on in', but Rex knew her well enough to see that she was glad he was there. _Hmm, Dess was right. What is it with girls always needing to talk everything out?_

Melissa's death glare returned when she picked up that thought. "I don't need to talk everything out, as a matter of fact; but some things, you pretty much have to. Like what was going on with you for the last two months? Were you really that sick, that you couldn't even pick up the phone?"

"For about three weeks, yeah; but there's more to it than that, and it's hard to put into words… could I just show you?" He held his hand out.

"Fine, just show me. This better be good," Melissa muttered. She closed the distance between them in two long strides and gripped his hand hard, her eyes widening and fingernails digging into his skin as she soaked up his memories like a dry sponge.

As their minds connected, Rex felt Melissa probing his mind for the exact time period she was curious about, and her shock at what she saw: confusion over why his father was getting sick and he wasn't, all the unpleasantness when the flu's symptoms finally kicked in, splitting headaches, fever, cold sweat and all, horror when he realized he had contracted the disease weeks ago and infected his father, and the mind-numbing guilt that crashed down on him when he realized the old guy wasn't going to recover.

She also saw the way Dess had taken care of him when he was too sick to get out of bed, how she had tried to stop him from agonizing over his father's rapidly deteriorating health, how when Mr. Greene finally died, Dess had helped with funeral preparations when Rex was too out of it to do it himself, and how that had brought Rex and Dess much closer than they had ever been before.

Rex felt Melissa's surprise at this, but (to his astonishment) not a hint of jealousy. _Of course not, Rex, I can see that nothing ever happened between you and Dess. I'm just glad someone was there for you when I couldn't be. I'm sorry about that._

_Don't be sorry, Cowgirl. It sounds like you've had enough on your plate without worrying about me, too. _

_Yes, _she flipped through another memory, _I see that's part of why you quit talking to me: you knew I'd see that something was wrong and worry about you._

_I don't remember thinking that._

_It's called your subconscious, dummy; you wouldn't remember thinking it. So, why haven't you started trying to get to my memories of all the new midnighters I've met since leaving Bixby, or did that fever burn the seer curiosity out of you?_

_Not hardly, but you're the mindcaster here; when it comes to memory-sharing, I'll let you run the show._

_How considerate of you. _Rex didn't even need to see Melissa's face to know she was smirking. She pulled up all the information about new midnighters that was stored in her brain and showed them to him like a slideshow.

When Rex had seen all of Melissa's memories (minus the boring, everyday bits that she had deemed unworthy of replaying), he pulled his hand away and flexed his fingers, which were stiff and a little numb from being curled around Melissa's hand for- how long? He looked at his watch – could it really be 2:45 already?

"Time flies when you're having fun," Melissa quoted dryly.

"Looks like it, although I'm pretty sure a lot of the stuff I showed you was far from fun."

"No shit, Sherlock, watching your dad die and you dig yourself into a real funk wasn't fun." She frowned pensively and said, "but it's good to know what was going through your head. I wish you had showed me sooner; it would have saved me a lot of time and energy that I wasted being pissed off at you."

"Again, I'm sorry. So… does this mean you're no longer pissed?"

She nodded.

"Well that's a relief. Um, I should probably leave now; it is late, after all." Rex turned toward the door, but he hadn't taken two steps before Melissa grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded, sounding as if he had somehow insulted her.

"Back to my room, of course."

"Oh, no you're not. I'm not done with you yet."

"Is there something else you want to show me?"

A wicked smile spread over Melissa's face. "You bet there is."

She pulled him closer and snaked her other arm around him, running her fingers through his hair once, then tightening her grip so that he couldn't pull away. She took a deep breath, and Rex realized that she was closing her mind so that her touch wouldn't reconnect their minds.

_She doesn't want the distraction of thought-sharing right now, _he realized. _Which means I'm probably not getting back to my room anytime soon tonight. And I'm really okay with that._

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but school's started and I'm very busy. I will try to update at least once a week, maybe twice if I'm lucky, but I can't make any promises about my schedule. I can promise that I am now (mostly) done with the boring relationship crap, and I'm going to try to get to some kind of exciting darkling fight, once I figure out how. Thanks for reading, and as always I would appreciate reviews, as long as they don't include words like 'you' 'are' 'the' 'worst' 'writer' 'I've' 'ever' and 'seen' lol.**


	7. Darkling Forest

**Jonathan**

"So, what am I doing here again?" Jonathan asked irritably.

Melissa put her coffee back into its cup-holder a little more forcefully than necessary. "As I told you an hour and a half ago, we are looking for signs of the darkling Mick saw last week."

Jonathan sighed loudly. "I know that; I mean, what am I doing out here? Now that we have Rex, he can spot the darkling tracks in about five seconds. None of the rest of us is going to see anything in the middle of the day, and the darkling certainly isn't here."

Melissa parked the car and got out, looking around at the huge, widely-spaced spruce and oak trees that grew in the River Glen Nature Park. "Everyone else should be here in just a few minutes. Mick's teleporting Dess and Alex here and Rex said he could drive himself."

"Where is he, anyway?"

"McDonald's. I don't know how he stands the crap cuisine they call food, but whatever." Melissa grimaced, shaking her head at Rex's bad taste in restaurants.

Before Jonathan could defend McDonald's, Mick and Alex appeared. Jonathan noted that Mick's power worked very differently from his: Mick could teleport during the day, and he didn't need physical contact to take others with him. _Plus, it looks like teleporting is a little more disorienting than flying._

Indeed, Alex looked a little freaked out as he hastily stepped away from Mick. "Uh, wow. That's teleporting, huh?" he asked shakily.

Mick rolled his eyes. "Yeah, dude, that's teleporting. That seer guy told me all I had to do was focus on the place I wanted to get to, and it looks like he knows what he's talking about, so far."

"Of course he does," Melissa said. "And here he comes now." She pointed at the car pulling into the lot.

"Oh, crap, he told me to go get Dess, too. I'll be back before you miss me," Mick promised, and then vanished.

_Sure he'll be back before we miss him, because I won't miss him at all. _Jonathan was still annoyed at the teleporter for his impertinent questions about Jessica. _Where does he get off being so damn nosy, anyway? As if that's not enough, he's dragged us all the way out here so we can trek around the forest wildlife park looking for a darkling that's probably long gone._

Melissa, who had been watching Rex drive up, turned to frown at Jonathan. "Dial down the resentment, Flyboy. You're just jealous because Mick is able to use his power during the day, and you can't."

"No I'm not; that's crazy," Jonathan objected.

"What's crazy?" Rex asked as he slammed his car's door shut. He looked from Jonathan to Melissa and back again, but before he could repeat his question, Mick and Dess popped out of thin air right in front of him. Rex shrugged and got down to business, asking Mick where exactly he was in the forest when he saw the darkling.

"Let me think… OK, that day, I started down that trail there." Mick pointed at the trail that wound to the west.

"That's way out of town, right?" Dess asked. Mick nodded affirmatively. "This forest must be huge… it's exactly the kind of place darklings would like to hang out… all this dense vegetation to block the sun… and those hills to the southwest… if there are caves in the hills, they would make a perfect darkling clubhouse."

While Dess mused over the possibilities the forest offered for darkling habitation, Mick stared at her like he had never seen anyone muse before. Jonathan also noticed that Mick had been holding Dess's hand in order to teleport her, and he hadn't let go yet. _Good, if he's busy hitting on Dess, maybe he won't have time to be such a pain in the butt. _

The whole time they were hiking through the forest, Jonathan couldn't help thinking that this job would have been better left to midnight, when he could have flown instead of stumbling over tree roots and getting tangled in vines. Finally, to stop himself from dwelling on that, he started watching the other midnighters more closely. He saw that Rex still had his darkling senses, because he was sniffing the air for a scent, rather than just scanning the ground for the Focus left by an inhuman touch.

Jonathan also saw that Melissa was sticking extremely close to him, and that she looked a heck of a lot happier than she had last night. _I guess that means they patched things up. I guess that's a good thing; if Melissa and Rex are back together, she might forget to terrify Alex, and maybe he'll stop that infernal stammering if he's not being snapped at. _

Jonathan shot the lock-melter a derisive glance; he had never had much patience with the other guy's shyness. Although, Alex didn't look quite so shy today. He was examining Dess's GPS device, and he sounded more enthusiastic than Jonathan had ever heard him. Jonathan also noticed that Mick seemed annoyed by this. He obviously wanted to interrupt, but couldn't find an opening to do so. _Geez, now I remember why I used to avoid hanging out with other midnighters; we __never__ get along. If Alex and Mick are gonna fight over Dess, I might actually be glad Rex is around. That's a scary thought._

Finally, after 40 minutes of walking, Rex stopped and fixed Mick with an irritated glare. "All right, Mick, exactly how far into this forest were you, anyway?"

"I was pretty far in; I was actually spending the day out here. Kind of like camping, but without the 'spending the night in a tent' part. Look, if you guys don't like walking, why don't I teleport us there? I know precisely where I was, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Everyone was so sick of walking that they agreed instantly. Mick closed his eyes in concentration, and teleported.

The second the midnighters had materialized, they realized that Mick's idea of teleporting to the place he saw the darkling had worked a little too well. They were definitely in a different part of the forest, but they were also in the middle of midnight!

"Whoa. What the hell just happened?! One minute it's the middle of the day, and now it's midnight? Hang on, this isn't like the eclipses that happened around last Halloween, is it? Jessica closed that rip; don't tell me the darklings have found a way of making a new one!"

"I don't think so, Jonathan," Rex said. He looked unnerved, as did the others, but he kept his voice in calm seer-knows-best mode. "From what I've read about teleporters, they can bend space and time. Mick wanted to show us where he saw a darkling, and he accidentally took us to when he saw it, too."

"That is seriously freaky," Dess said; no doubt she was racking her brain for an equation that could explain someone stepping into another time as easily as stepping into another room.

"Hey, I'm sorry. It was an accident. I can teleport you back if you want." Mick reached out and gave Dess's hand a reassuring squeeze. She pulled away and held up a finger to silence him.

"I think I hear your darkling coming… right now!"

"Oh, crap. We don't have any metal, do we?" Melissa asked.

"Um, I didn't bring any."

"Nope."

"I got nothing."

"We are so screwed."

"What do we do?!"

"Run!"

The midnighters took off, getting off the open trail and into underbrush thick enough that the darkling couldn't follow. The darkling slunk around a large oak trunk and stood there, sniffing for the prey that it had expected. Rex growled softly, and Jonathan elbowed him in the ribs. _Don't get any ideas, Rex, now is not the time for you to go all predator on us, _Jonathan thought. Melissa seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she wrapped an ungloved hand around Rex's wrist. He stiffened, then relaxed and stopped growling.

Finally, the darkling gave up and moved on, and the midnighters untangled themselves from the brush, leaves and vines. "Be quiet," Alex murmured. "We don't know if it's gone far enough that it can't hear us anymore."

"Right. We should get Jessica to take care of this thing. Where is she?"

"Probably still in my car; I'll go get her." Jonathan jumped into the air and soared back toward the hotel parking lot where he had left his car. When he reached the parking lot, he found Jessica perched on the car's hood, waiting for him.

"There you are. What took you so long?"

"Saw a darkling. Rex said I should get you to take care of it. You got the flashlight?"

"Right here, as always." Jessica took Jonathan's hand, and they flew back to the forest.

As they landed, Jonathan realized that the other midnighters were gone. "Hey, where'd everybody go?" he exclaimed. "They were right here…"

"Um, Jonathan? I think maybe they left to get away from that." Jessica pointed over Jonathan's shoulder. He spun around and saw not one, but three darklings. One was in panther form, one was shaped like a hideous tarantula, and the third mostly looked like some monstrous bird of prey, except that it had the powerful legs and long, curved claws of a large cat. Despite the difference in their appearances, the three darklings had one thing in common: they all looked hungry.


	8. Release and Readjustment

**Jessica**

"Rats! Jess, flashlight!"

Jessica pulled out Unanticipated Illuminations and switched it on, using the other hand to plug her ears as the darklings screamed. Jonathan squeezed his eyes shut against the blinding white light. When the darklings were reduced to sticky puddles on the forest floor, Jess turned off Illuminations and stuck it back in her pocket. "Damn, that was bright!"

Jessica turned toward the irritated exclamation._ It's that teleporter Jonathan punched in the nose last night. What's he doing here? _

As if he had heard that thought Mick said, "I teleported Dess, Melissa, Rex and Alex away from those darklings, but Jonathan took off to get you, so obviously I couldn't take him. So I came back."

"Where'd you take everybody else?" Jonathan asked.

"Back to the cars, of course."

"Hey, guys, not to cut short this scintillating conversation, but I hear more darklings on the way." Jonathan and Mick shut up, and in the silence it was much easier to hear the sound of large animals crashing through the trees, and within seconds there were no trees left between them and the five giant panthers.

"Shit, how many of those things are in here?!" Mick exclaimed.

"My guess would be 'a whole lot'," Jessica said dryly. Jonathan didn't bother to say anything; he just grabbed Jessica and Micks' wrists and jumped backward, out of reach of the panthers' claws. Unfortunately, forests weren't prime real estate for jumping backward, and the three smacked into a tree trunk.

"Sorry about that," Jonathan huffed.

"Let's just teleport, all right?"

The five darklings pounced at the three midnighters, and Jessica forgot the flashlight and threw her hands up to protect her face. The next second, the sound of snarling panthers was gone, and scorching hot light was shining through Jessica's closed eyelids. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter and put her hands over her face.

"Jess, are you all right? Did it get you?!" Jonathan tugged her hands away from her face and frantically examined her for scratches, bites or bruises.

"Jessica?! Mick was able to bring her here?!"

"Is she OK?"

"Here, let me take a look." It was a relief when Rex's calm, authoritative voice cut through the excited babble that had broken out after Mick had teleported Jessica to this strange, bright, hot place. "I don't see any injuries. Jessica, open your eyes, please."

Jessica forced her eyelids open a slit, then slammed then shut again. "Rex, what's happening? Where is all this light coming from, and why does it burn my eyes?"

"Burn her eyes? She's not blind, is she?!"

"Jonathan, please be quiet; you're not helping. Dess, give Jessica your sunglasses, I think you can handle the sunlight better than she can."

Dess forked over her sunglasses, and Jessica put them on. Finally, she could open her eyes without feeling like her retinas were being scorched. She looked around and saw that she was in the Riverview Forest Wildlife Park parking lot, and the rest of the midnighters were staring at her as if she had grown an extra head. Since they all seemed to be waiting for her to say something, she asked, "Did you say sunlight? Is this daytime?"

"Yeah," Melissa replied, "It is. Our new friend can teleport between the blue time and regular time, and he brought you with him."

"Oh." Jessica spun in a half-circle, staring around at the trees, the non-frozen birds, the cars rushing past on the highway, everything that would be frozen in the blue time that was now live and in color – full spectrum, non-glowing-blue color. Then she whirled back to Jonathan, grabbing his arm to assure herself that he was really, solidly here, not weightlessly floating as he was in the blue time. Once she was sure he was really there, she inspected herself to be sure she was really there; after all, the daylight dimension hadn't been her world for years now, and she had long ago resigned herself to the fact that it would never be hers again.

While Jessica was marveling at her new temporal independence, Jonathan never took his eyes, or his hands, off of her, Dess and Alex hurriedly struck up a conversation to avoid intruding, Mick tapped his foot impatiently as if he didn't know what the big deal was, Melissa leaned against Rex's car and stared up at the fluffy stratocumulus clouds, and Rex watched Jessica as if he were a scientist observing a new specimen. Finally, Jessica's attention was captured by Alex asking, "So what do we do now?"

She looked down at her feet, a bit of her astonished elation draining away; Alex had just voiced a question that she would have gotten around to worrying about herself after a while. "What do we do now?" she asked quietly.

"What do you want to do? It's almost lunchtime; you want something to eat?"

"I'm not really hungry; I just ate a couple of hours ago. Although I guess for you it was… how long ago, Dess?"

"50.318 hours ago, to be exact."

"Wow, I really need to readjust my schedule."

"Yeah, well, the rest of us are hungry, so can we go now?"

"If you want to go, why don't you just teleport to Denny's already?" Jonathan snapped.

"That's just fine with me," Mick retorted.

"You know, I'm hungry too. Can I come with you?" Dess asked.

"Sure you can." Mick and Dess teleported away in search of food, and, Jessica suspected, another pair of sunglasses for Dess.

"If you don't want food, Jessica, where do you want to go? There's no point in hanging around this parking lot any longer."

"I wouldn't say no to going back to the hotel; it's been a long time since I've hung out in any place other than Jonathan's car. Speaking of which, Rex, would you mind if I rode with you? Like I said, I've seen enough of the inside of Jonathan's car to last me a lifetime."

Rex agreed, and Jonathan insisted on riding with Jessica, so the two J's got into the backseat of Rex's car. Melissa got in the front passenger seat, after telling Alex to take Jonathan's car and put it in the hotel parking lot. Of course, he jumped to obey Melissa's instruction, which would have gotten an eye-roll from Jonathan, except that his eyes were glued to Jessica, as if he was afraid she would disappear if he looked away. He also hadn't let go of her hand since he had pulled it away from her face.

Despite claiming not to be hungry, the first thing Jessica did when she got to the hotel room was to attack the snack bar. "Um, Jess, you do know we have to pay for that stuff when we check out, right?"

"Leave her alone, Melissa," Rex chided. "She's been trapped in darkling time for three years now; we'll be lucky if opening three different mini-bags of cookies and cans of nuts is the worst part of her readjustment."

Jessica forced the wad of half-chewed cashews down her throat and asked, "What do you mean, readjustment?"

"Yeah, what do you mean? There's nothing wrong with her," Jonathan said, putting a protective arm around her shoulders.

"I'm not saying there is, but it would be stupid to think Jess can just jump back into the human world like nothing happened; there's all kinds of things we have to work out. For example, what are you going to do about your parents?"

"I hadn't thought about that," Jessica admitted sheepishly.

Rex sat down across from Jess and fixed her with his most serious stare. "Do you want to go back to your parents, Jessica, or do you want to stay with Jonathan?"

Jessica tightened her grip on Jonathan's hand and looked down at her knees so that her long red hair fell over her face. "I don't know," she whispered. "I've missed my parents and Beth ever since I got stuck, but I gave up on seeing them again years ago… and I've gotten used to spending all my time with Jonathan… and I don't even know what I'm going to do with the extra 24 hours in the day anyway!" Overwhelmed, she started crying and pressed her face into Jonathan's chest.

Jonathan glared at Rex, as if Jessica's crying was his fault. Rex sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, but she would have had to think about this sooner or later regardless. Come on, Melissa, let's give Jess and Jonathan a chance to talk things over."

When Jessica had calmed down enough to discuss the situation, Jonathan said, "Look, if you don't want to go back to your parents, we don't have to tell them you're back, and if you do want to see them again, I'll go with you. Whatever you decide to do, we'll stick together, I promise."

"Thank you, Jonathan. I think… I would like to see Mom and Dad and Beth again. But how are we going to explain my being gone for three years, and what if they want me to move back with them? How can you be sure we'll be able to stick together?"

"Um, Jess, I know you haven't aged much in the blue time, but per your birth certificate you're eighteen now; your parents can't tell you where to live. As for how to explain your disappearance, lots of people went missing that night…"

"You mean lots of people got eaten by darklings last night," Jessica interrupted.

"True, but my point is, we can say you just got caught up in the Bixby Halloween Hysteria and, I don't know, got a concussion or something. And by the time you came to yourself, they had already moved out of Bixby, and it's taken you this long to find them again. How's that sound?"

Jessica laughed shakily. "It sounds completely nuts, but saner than the truth. All right, I'll call them. You do have their number, right?"

"Sure I do; I kept in touch with Beth after we left. Here you go." Jonathan handed Jess his cell phone.

Jessica flipped the phone open and scrolled down the contacts list to Beth's number. Holding her breath, she pressed the Send button.

Beth picked up on the third ring. "Hey, Jonathan. What's up?"

"This isn't Jonathan, Beth."

A sharp intake of breath on the other end. "What the – Jess, is that you?! How are you, I mean, what's going on?"

"I'm not totally sure what's going on, Beth, but one way or another… I'm back."

**A/N: I am so very sorry this update took so long, but I've had schoolwork, and then my mom hijacked the computer all day. Plus, it took me a while to figure out how to work the stuff in this chapter. Review and tell me what you think, please.**


	9. Future Plans

**Alex**

_Knock, knock. _"Door's open," Alex called. The door opened a crack and Dess poked her head in.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she asked.

"No, come in. Um, what's going on?"

Dess scooted into the room and shut the door behind her. "Jonathan told me that he and Jessica are going to visit her parents in Chicago; he doesn't know how long they'll be gone."

Alex shrugged. "Sounds reasonable to me. Jess hasn't seen her family in three years; I'd expect them to be gone awhile. You're not sad about them leaving, are you?"

Dess's shoulders jerked in a noncommittal shrug. "I don't really know. I mean, it's kind of weird, having all five of us together again. In the old Bixby days, I couldn't wait for us to go our separate ways so that I wouldn't be stuck between the two couples anymore; but now, I think I might actually miss them if they don't come back."

"I'm sure they will, eventually. They're midnighters; they'll never fit in anywhere else as well as they do here. I know I'll have a hard time fitting in with daylighters now."

Dess dropped the strand of hair she had been twirling around her finger and gave Alex a sharp look. "Are you going somewhere?"

_I really wish I didn't have to; I'd much rather stay here with you. _He nodded reluctantly. "Remember that job that I mostly do on the computer? Unfortunately, I can't do meetings with my boss on the computer, so I have to haul myself to the office – in Georgia." He rolled his eyes. "It sucks, but it's a good thing; one of the team quit, and they need a replacement ASAP. The bad part is, I'll be stuck there for at least a week while I get up to speed on the project."

Dess nodded and scuffed one shoe against the other. _She's not happy to hear this; is it just because she's getting a déjà vu feeling with everybody going off to do their own thing, or is she going to miss me? I'll miss her; she's a cool girl, someone I'd like to be friends with. If I'd known her longer than a couple of days, I might want to be more than her friend. _

"You should definitely see your boss about that job; it would be a good move for you. I'm sorry we haven't had more time to get to know each other, though."

Alex smiled; he would make time to get to know Dess better in the future, for sure. Before she could ask what he was grinning about, he jumped in with his own question. "So, uh, when are Jess and Jonathan leaving?"

"First thing tomorrow; Jess still doesn't want to get back in Jonathan's car, so Mick's going to teleport them." She shook her head. "I don't think he's any too thrilled to have become midnighter mass transit."

_Mass transit; what a good use for him. _"Yeah, I guess his power will make it easier for you guys to travel, too."

"That's right, Melissa said that it's about time for us to leave this town; she's sure there are no other midnighters in this area. Mick wants to come with us, so we'll wait to leave until he gets back from taking Jess and Jonathan to Chicago. Then I guess he could teleport us to our next destination instead of us driving for hours."

Alex struggled to keep from scowling; he wished Mick were staying in Riverview. It especially seemed unfair that Mick got to hang out with Dess while Alex was in Georgia.

"I guess I should wish you luck at your new job," Dess said. She gave Alex a quick hug, then stepped back. "See you tomorrow." She was out the door before he could think what to say.

The next morning, Alex joined Dess, Rex and Melissa in telling Jonathan and Jessica goodbye and good luck with her parents. After Mick teleported them and all their stuff away, the four went for breakfast, and Alex told Rex and Melissa about his job offer in Georgia.

"You're leaving? That's too bad; you lock-melters are pretty useful."

"Um, thanks, I think. Anyway, it's not like I have to move to Georgia permanently; I'll only be there until I'm set up with all my new associates, and get all the necessary files for this project downloaded to my laptop. Then I'll be back to, uh, help you break into people's houses, I guess."

Melissa snickered. "Yeah, 'cause we do that so often."

"Only when we have to," Rex amended.

"We frequently have to," Dess reminded him. "Anyway, I hope you like your new job, Alex, and if you can't go a week or two without seeing us, Mick can always teleport you down for a visit."

Alex groaned. "Um, no thanks, Dess. Even if teleporters and acrobats are standard transportation for midnighters, I think I'd rather drive."


	10. Proposal

**Melissa**

Rex slammed the lid of his car's trunk shut. "I think that's all of our stuff. That is all of our stuff, isn't it, Cowgirl?"

"Yep, that's it; although since I've gotten so used to Jonathan, Jessica and Alex being here, it sort of looks like there's something missing, you know?"

Rex put his arms around her waist, pulling her close. "They won't be missing for long. Jess said she only wants to visit her parents, not move back with them, and Alex's business trip will probably take even less time; he doesn't even like his coworkers that much, so he'll take care of business as fast as he can and then get back here."

"I know he will; he doesn't want to leave Mick alone with Dess any longer than he has to."

Rex looked startled. "What did you say?"

Melissa grinned. "Oh come on, Rex, you honestly haven't noticed the way those two look at her? Some seer you are."

Rex shook his head. "That's just great, Mick and Alex fighting over Dess. You ever notice how much drama it causes when a bunch of midnighters try to work together?"

"All the time. Remember what a hard time you used to have trying to get anything done, because none of us got along all that well?"

"Yes, I have very vivid memories of all the disagreements we used to get into. I have to say, I missed you guys after you left, but in some ways it was a relief to not have to be in charge all the time."

Melissa twisted around in his arms so she could see his face. "You're not thinking about ditching the rest of us and going back to Bixby, are you? Because without you, I had to take over, and it was not fun. I mean, explaining the blue time to a ton of newbies is hard enough, but then Alex decided to stick with us, and his stuttering is annoying, Jonathan was always either impatient with him or brooding about Jessica's rotten situation, and…"

Rex put his fingers over her lips to silence her. "Relax, Cowgirl, I'm not going anywhere. I missed you way too much to even consider leaving."

Melissa sighed in relief. "Good, because I like having you here with me. I really never want to lose you again."

Rex smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way; it'll make this a lot easier."

Melissa frowned, bewildered. "Make what easier?"

"This." Rex leaned his forehead against hers and as their minds connected, pushed all his other emotions away and sent her a single thought. _Melissa, will you marry me?_

Several things flickered through her mind: mostly shock, happiness, and then absolute certainty of what her answer should be. _Yes, I will. _

They were still kissing when Dess joined them, having checked out of the hotel. "What's up with you two?" she asked.

"We're getting married," Rex told her.

"Of course you are; I was wondering what was taking so long. I mean, how hard is it to say four little words?"

"Wait a minute. You knew Rex was going to ask me to marry him?"

Dess shrugged. "I knew that he should. You guys are perfect together. Honestly, Rex, I'm glad you asked her now, 'cause if you had waited too much longer, I would have had to kick your butt, again."

Melissa laughed. "Don't worry, Dess, from now on I'll take over telling-Rex-things-that-should-be-obvious duty."

"Oh, this is gonna be great fun," Rex muttered.

Mick popped out of thin air in time to hear that remark. "What's gonna be great fun?" he asked. Rex and Melissa exchanged a 'why can't he butt out' look, and didn't answer.

"They're getting married," Dess informed Mick.

Mick's eyes widened. "Married, huh? Wow, that's a big deal. Are you sure it's a good idea? I mean, he just got here; did you guys even date in high school or…"

Dess held up a hand, and Mick fell silent, though his skeptical expression stayed in place. "Mick, sweetie, if you're gonna stick with us, you need to learn when to keep your mouth shut," Dess said firmly.

"Hear, hear," Melissa added.

"Fine," Mick grumbled. "So, if I can't talk much, can I at least teleport the car? You're not telling me I have to sit through thirteen-hour car trips…"

"We're going to Houston, Mick, it only takes six hours to get there," Rex began.

"Um, actually, it takes 5 hours, 40 minutes and 17 seconds to get to Houston from here," Dess interrupted. "Seriously, you guys never do the math."

"Why should we, when we have you to do it for us?" Rex retorted.

Melissa unwrapped her fiancé's arm from around her shoulders and stepped back to watch the (mostly) good-natured dispute unfold. _Yeah, the gang's still all together; and, annoying as they can be, I wouldn't have it any other way._

**A/N: Well, folks, that's the end of this story. Thanks to everyone who read this, and an extra-special thank-you to 8BonnieBlue8 and lizzy105 for reviewing! Also, thanks to my parents, because if they hadn't complained so much about Jessica being stuck in the blue time, I never would have written this. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and even though the story is now complete, I still welcome new reviews, if you have ****anything**** to say about this story. Peace out,**

**RLD**


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